as the very last song at plan-it-x fest john played no children and he unplugged everything and came to the very front of the stage and told us all to not take pictures/record it because we were going to have a moment. so he started playing (on chris clavin’s guitar!!) and the entire audience screamed it. 600 sweaty punx belting out the mountain goats. then john put the guitar down and sang/screamed with us all a capella. and then before the song was over he crowdsurfed and we finished the song up while people were passing him through the audience. afterwards there was so much noise with everyone applauding and yelling and the people who were sitting on the edge of the stage (i was one of them) stood up and clapped. i could see the whole venue packed with people going absolutely wild standing right near where john was before he went into the crowd. this was the last performance of the fest and everyone was probably really tired and we all smelled awful but as we were milling out every single person i saw was grinning.
even though john said to not take pictures i’m sort of glad someone took this one, just because it captures, as much as a photograph can, how amazing that night was (and how amazing john darnielle is).
I think this post just really sums up well what makes John such an amazing performer. Thank you for sharing <3
